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Shannon, having faked her death at the First Twilight, is alive and is allowed into Eva and Hideyoshi's room by Eva and Hideyoshi. They knew about the fake death plan, and that's why Hideyoshi didn't say anything about her being alive, as they assumed Shannon was in on it because she was in the shed! She kills them, and hides under the bed!

As far as I've been able to determine, the murderer doesn't particularly go out of their way to create closed rooms, and doesn't seem to have a problem with just leaving bodies lying out in the open either. So if a closed room appears that would require the culprit to endanger themselves in order to construct it, we should instead suspect that the closed room was not created by the culprit alone. In the case of the EP1 second twilight, the closed room is easy to explain if it was constructed after the murders occurred by people other than the culprit.

It is almost certain that Kanon faked his death at the fifth twilight with the help of Kumasawa and Nanjo. We can walk that theory back to get a picture of how the second twilight occurred.

Spoiler for Clues, long:

Supposedly Kanon and Kumasawa went to get shears from the basement storehouse to break into the guest room. But this would put them right next to the boiler room where Kinzo's body was burned, which they somehow totally failed to notice even though Genji claimed the corpse had been burning for a while.

Because they supposedly didn't find Kinzo's corpse until after the 2nd twilight, nobody should have known about the stakes being used to follow the epitaph gougings ahead of time, or that the fourth twilight was already finished. In that case, even if Kanon had a stake and came up with the idea to follow the epitaph, in order to fake his death he would have needed to pull off a head wound, not a chest wound. In that case, the explanation of "pulling the stake out after being attacked" would have been impossible, so having a stake would have been useless. So it's reasonable to theorize that Kanon and Kumasawa already knew about Kinzo's corpse being burned and staked, but kept quiet about it.

Since Kanon could not have planned to fake his death in the way he did without knowing ahead of time that Kinzo had been staked, and since the stakes are likely to have come from the same place, we can turn around and conclude that Kinzo was staked precisely so that Kanon could fake his death with a stake.

However, if the burnt corpse wasn't originally staked for the fourth twilight, that means there's no reason for the culprit to have burned it.Therefore, the corpse must have been both burned and staked by the servants. This would explain why Kanon and Kumasawa didn't report finding the corpse when they went to the storeroom.

The letter at the third twilight serves no purpose other than to reinforce the belief that the epitaph is being followed. It also never appeared in any other episode, so we can determine that it was written because of specific EP1 circumstances. For that reason, we can tentatively connect it to the faked fourth and fifth twilights. This is useful because...

It is impossible for the magic circle on the guest room to have been painted in the short time Kanon and Genji were supposedly away, which means both of them lied about it and probably painted it themselves. This makes sense because both of them were implicated in magic circle painting and pranks by Gohda's notebook. The only reason for painting such a thing is to give the appearance that magic has taken place, which ties it to the faked third through fifth twilights. Genji is now implicated in the fake death conspiracy as well, which lines up with him lying about how long it would take Kinzo's corpse to stink up the house (we can tell from EP4 that it takes two hours at most).

Adding additional magical elements to the second twilight crime scene should have been unnecessary with the bodies already staked. Therefore, it makes more sense for all of the magical elements to have been added at once, including the stakes. This is not particularly difficult since the servants have the stakes.

Eva's body was found lying face-up on the bed with her shoes still on, which contradicts the prior scene showing Eva and Hideyoshi having an intimate moment in bed. This strongly suggests that she was actually outside the room when she was killed, and that she was carried back and posed.

However, based on EP2 and EP4, the culprit doesn't seem to particularly care about having the second twilight victims together, so there's no reason for them to drag Eva's corpse around and pose her. Therefore, the posing must have been done by the servants afterward, which is in keeping with their other actions to create the illusion of magic. The shoes speak to a lack of attention to detail, so the open jar of soap in the shower would tend to confirm that Hideyoshi really was killed there.

Since the culprit wouldn't deliberately endanger themselves to create a closed room, we can just conclude that the chain lock wasn't set after Hideyoshi was killed. The servants were building a magic illusion, so it's in keeping with that to cut the chain and then pretend that it had been set.

So the short version of the theory is: The servants and Nanjo discovered Eva and Hideyoshi's bodies, at which time the chain was not set. Since it looked like the murders were going to continue, they created a plan to trip up the culprit's accomplices (by altering the second twilight crime scene and setting up a weird magical incident) and fake Kanon's death so he could keep an eye out for the killer. This plan explains all of the details of the second through fifth twilights.

Of course a theory where all of the servants are the culprits is also possible like this, but I think most people would agree that it would be incredibly unlikely.

So the short version of the theory is: The servants and Nanjo discovered Eva and Hideyoshi's bodies, at which time the chain was not set. Since it looked like the murders were going to continue, they created a plan to trip up the culprit's accomplices (by altering the second twilight crime scene and setting up a weird magical incident) and fake Kanon's death so he could keep an eye out for the killer. This plan explains all of the details of the second through fifth twilights.

Of course a theory where all of the servants are the culprits is also possible like this, but I think most people would agree that it would be incredibly unlikely.

It'd be nice to think that the servants painting magic circles would only be part of creating the magic illusion, with no intent to take part in the murders. This might actually fit quite well with the first twilight fakery theories. I'm quite sure it's either Kumasawa or Genji who paints the magic circles, with Genji being the most probable due to no circles (except the bank account number) appearing after Genji dies and Gohda's TIPS. I think Kumasawa could carry the stakes (there could be some room under those clothes, right?), or they were hidden in rooms beforehand by some plan.

What I've read through these last 10 pages is that the solution to the chained closed rooms is the culprit coming in, closing the chain, then hiding and dying for some reason, therefore not 'existing' or 'hiding' anymore. Well for EP1 second twilight there is no red denying anyone is hiding, so the culprit could be hiding under the bed/in the closet. If the chain wasn't set at all before the servants came in to prepare the cut chain and magic circles, there was probably no need to check all places, they thinking that the culprit escaped right after the murder. But why would they intently make a closed room? Because otherwise they would be suspected of the murder right away if it was all open, probably.

How long was Kinzo's corpse burning actually? Couldn't Kumasawa or Kanon have staked him and set him burning the time they were going for the storeroom?

I think Natsuhi's viewpoint hiding in the closed can be trusted to some extent (it's quite realistic after all, comparing to what we've seen all through EP2-EP4). So Hideyoshi either didn't recognize the culprit, or the culprit was someone he thought was dead already. So it is either Rosa, Maria, George, Genji or Jessica. Problem is that the culprit (and Natsuhi) seemed to be in the room already when the chain was last set, but no-one found them after they broke to the room. Well they were just being lazy (not to mention shocked).

For common interest, here's definition for "corpse":
1. a dead body, usually of a human being.
2. something no longer useful or viable: rusting corpses of old cars.
3. Obsolete. a human or animal body, whether alive or dead.
(plus there is slang meanings like an empty alcohol bottle or cigarette butt, but this is translated from japanese, so I don't think they have slangs like that. Though they're surprisingly fitting for Umineko )

When Jessica's corpse was discovered, only Battler, George, Maria, Rosa, Genji, Gohda, Shannon, Kumasawa, and Nanjo were in Jessica's room. So do we automatically need to say Jessica's "corpse" is dead, or is it really possible for Jessica to be alive? Definition 3 has that chance there.

When Jessica's corpse was discovered, only Battler, George, Maria, Rosa, Genji, Gohda, Shannon, Kumasawa, and Nanjo were in Jessica's room. So do we automatically need to say Jessica's "corpse" is dead, or is it really possible for Jessica to be alive? Definition 3 has that chance there.

Notice that Beatrice herself a few paragraphs later suggests assuming that Jessica is alive and laughs at Battler when he rejects the possibility immediately because he doesn't want to suspect Jessica, rather than because Jessica is dead. If that red would automatically deny Jessica being alive, such a suspicion would be simply impossible and there would be nothing to laugh about. If Jessica really is alive, Beatrice is taking a large risk, but Battler is incompetent, at least at this point, so it would pass anyway.

The word used in the original Japanese, "死体" pretty unambiguously refers to a corpse and nothing else. The first kanji in it is for 'death', the second is for 'body', no wiggle room here. However, the time definition "When Jessica's corpse was discovered" may actually be true regardless of whether Jessica is dead or not.

This works because Battler himself and other people at the scene called the object found "Jessica's corpse" relying on Nanjo's proclamation of her death. Because they themselves refer to this moment as the 'corpse discovery moment', and they're free to make a mistake and suppose a living body is actually a corpse, red relies on this context to mark time the statement applies to without actually confirming or denying the life/death status.

I.e. at the moment of listening, in Battler's perspective, the life/death status is not defined in red, and so he can refer to the moment as 'corpse discovery moment', and so can Beatrice because she knows about it, even in red. If he knew Jessica is in fact alive, it would retroactively have become 'faking Jessica discovery moment', at the moment he acquired the information, and referring to that moment as the 'corpse discovery moment' from then on would become a lie.

This is further reinforced by moving the statement of Jessica's life/death status outside the boundaries of red in the statement about her presence, so it's ambiguous regardless of what the red is supposed to be calling a corpse.

P.S: Also, there's a no less interesting possibility if we assume that such mistaken-context references are not in fact allowed. That would actually mean that Jessica was indeed alive at the moment the first person in the group entered the room, but died when everyone was already inside, from wounds or from a finishing blow -- because otherwise, the moment of 'corpse discovery' cannot happen when everyone is already in the room since someone has to have entered first and would be the singular discoverer of the corpse.

__________________

"The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."
— Paul K. Feyerabend, "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge"

Here's the thing about the stakers and whatnot: Why are they doing this? Assume they aren't killers, but are responsible for creating a witch illusion. What would make them risk doing this? Either they don't know ahead of time there will be deaths (making them innocent of any murder-related crimes), in which case they're manipulating a murder scene for a very weird reason and potentially implicating themselves in a crime they had nothing to do with, or they do know ahead of time, and are acting as accessories to murder even though by this logic they aren't part of the killer's faction (or even sure who it is, if Kanon is faking his death to find them).

I mean, I can understand perhaps that Nanjo and Kumasawa may have been bribed to create a witch illusion they don't fully understand, but it's still a far cry to go from staking corpses, planting letters, and painting symbols to moving corpses and posing them.

And it can't just be a fake deaths plot thing. The instant Genji sees Eva in ep1, he knows that's out the window. She is capital-D dead right in front of his eyes.

Here's the thing about the stakers and whatnot: Why are they doing this? Assume they aren't killers, but are responsible for creating a witch illusion.

From a different angle -- what good is the illusion of the witch to anyone at all?

For a murderer who rationally wishes everyone dead, the endgame explosion is the superior method, no need to bother and certainly no need to engage in trickery. Either in fact would be counter-productive as they scare people and make them move and explore too much. I.e. anyone who knows about the endgame explosion and rationally wishes everyone dead cannot actually be murdering anyone or engaging in the illusion.

For a murderer who wishes to cover evidence, the illusion is likewise useless, as should a police investigation show up, any extra work done on the corpses and the environment actually provides more physical evidence, not less.

For a murderer who plans to kill everyone manually for an emotional reason, to make the dead and the survivors suffer and experience fear, the illusion is a primary tool, but since it greatly increases the time and effort spent murdering, they must not care about getting caught after it's all done or even in the process. But then they don't need the endgame explosion.

For a non-murderer who is concerned only with themselves, the illusion of the witch is patently useless for both rational and emotional reasons.

For a non-murderer who is concerned about the well-being of non-murderers, the illusion of the witch is likewise useless.

Basically, the only reason to enforce the illusion of the witch I can think of is if you're a non-murderer who wishes to throw suspicion off the murderer by pinning the crimes onto the non-existent witch, i.e. one has to be an accessory to murder even if one is not a murderer themselves.

There may be a lot of good emotional reasons to do that if you know or suspect who the murderer is, but few to no rational reasons.

__________________

"The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."
— Paul K. Feyerabend, "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge"

Basically, the only reason to enforce the illusion of the witch I can think of is if you're a non-murderer who wishes to throw suspicion off the murderer by pinning the crimes onto the non-existent witch, i.e. one has to be an accessory to murder even if one is not a murderer themselves.

maybe I'm missing something but if this "non-murderer" is aware of the murderer, and the murderer is aware of the endgame explosion, then the non-murderer has nothing to cover.

Here's the thing about the stakers and whatnot: Why are they doing this? Assume they aren't killers, but are responsible for creating a witch illusion. What would make them risk doing this? Either they don't know ahead of time there will be deaths (making them innocent of any murder-related crimes), in which case they're manipulating a murder scene for a very weird reason and potentially implicating themselves in a crime they had nothing to do with, or they do know ahead of time, and are acting as accessories to murder even though by this logic they aren't part of the killer's faction (or even sure who it is, if Kanon is faking his death to find them).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver

There may be a lot of good emotional reasons to do that if you know or suspect who the murderer is, but few to no rational reasons.

I think it's important to consider the context here, because it generates three perfectly good reasons for non-murderers to stake people. This is a closed circle serial murder, so before anyone can worry about the police, they have to worry about staying alive.

First, this is a situation where a faction of characters had been planning elaborate fake deaths ahead of time, and the murderer apparently knew about this and took advantage of it. In other words, for the non-murderers in this faction, unstaked corpses are not trustworthy because the murderer might try to fake their own death. Staking them completely removes them from suspect consideration for everyone on the island, even the innocent people who weren't in on the original faking conspiracy.

Second, in the particular case of EP1, the servants should know at the moment they discover Eva and Hideyoshi's bodies that they'll become Natsuhi's prime suspects. Natsuhi has a gun and demonstrated earlier that she's possibly unstable, so trying to throw suspicion off themselves is healthier for their well-being.

Third, the servants' prime suspect in that situation should be Battler, the only person other than Maria and the victims who they know left Natsuhi's supervision at some point. They'd already been psyching him out about Beatrice before the murders were discovered, so building on that would give them an opportunity to scare him and prevent him from committing more murders. He might even accidentally reveal something he shouldn't know about the second twilight. This idea is backed up by the fourth twilight, since staking Kinzo is meaningless unless it's directed at someone who didn't know Kinzo was dead.

__________________

"Something has fallen on us that falls very seldom on men; perhaps the worst thing that can fall on them. We have found the truth; and the truth makes no sense."

But if the killer's motive was to show Battler magic, then wouldn't that automatically make the ones preparing the magic elements connected to the killer's plan? The killer not actually planning to make it magical would only be reasonable if Battler's sin isn't about magic at all. Because after all, people really die because of Battler's sin, so it must be the killer's motive. It was aid the sin wasn't between Battler and Beatrice, so there might actually be the chance the killer isn't related to magic at all, Beatrice being part of this "magic faction". But it should be Beatrice setting the ending explosion though, otherwise it wouldn't be "Beatrice" killing Battler in the end of EP4. Unless it is really some other method there, which I can't think of. Except "severe alcohol poisoning" (see Image Thread)

maybe I'm missing something but if this "non-murderer" is aware of the murderer, and the murderer is aware of the endgame explosion, then the non-murderer has nothing to cover.

If anybody besides the person who places it knows about the bomb. They are probably threatened not to tell anyone about it otherwise there would be many people panicking instead of just a few people. Or it's something they can't stop. The murders and stakings might be a distraction to "isolate" someone they want to save from the explosion rather than just cover for the murderer. If there's only enough room wherever Eva was to save a few people anyway killing the other people before the bomb goes off would be considered mercy.

maybe I'm missing something but if this "non-murderer" is aware of the murderer, and the murderer is aware of the endgame explosion, then the non-murderer has nothing to cover.

Yes, but only if the non-murderer is also aware of the endgame explosion.

Actually, my current best guess about the endgame explosion is that it is primed the moment someone opens up the gold storage, sort of like a failsafe against someone who opens up the door without actually having finished solving the epitaph -- and someone always finds the gold and forgets about the remaining lines...

Quote:

Originally Posted by LyricalAura

I think it's important to consider the context here, because it generates three perfectly good reasons for non-murderers to stake people. This is a closed circle serial murder, so before anyone can worry about the police, they have to worry about staying alive.

*snip*

Third, the servants' prime suspect in that situation should be Battler, the only person other than Maria and the victims who they know left Natsuhi's supervision at some point. They'd already been psyching him out about Beatrice before the murders were discovered, so building on that would give them an opportunity to scare him and prevent him from committing more murders. He might even accidentally reveal something he shouldn't know about the second twilight. This idea is backed up by the fourth twilight, since staking Kinzo is meaningless unless it's directed at someone who didn't know Kinzo was dead.

Well, I imagine yes, I missed that bit of context.

Mind you, about Kinzo's corpse. There's something else odd about it. I am now pretty convinced that it is actually stored in the study, marinating in the embalming liquid -- formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde mostly -- and is generally tossed out of the window of his study and burned because the siblings are closing in and now's the last moment to do so before it is actually discovered, or, alternatively, because someone thinks of another clever use for it like in Ep3 or possibly Ep4. In most cases, the one burning the corpse expects it stays undiscovered until it's pure ash, which can then be disposed of at leisure. That fits the available hints quite well.

What doesn't is that I still don't see a rational or emotional reason not to burn or bury it immediately at all if the intent really was to declare Kinzo missing from the start. Something must have prevented that or made it a bad idea to do.

What could it be at all?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluemail

But it should be Beatrice setting the ending explosion though, otherwise it wouldn't be "Beatrice" killing Battler in the end of EP4. Unless it is really some other method there, which I can't think of.

Doesn't have to be if Beatrice is the one who finds the gold and then forgets to reset the timer. That is, Beatrice doesn't have to intentionally kill Battler by the endgame explosion even if she is the one who causes it.

__________________

"The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."
— Paul K. Feyerabend, "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge"

Yes, but only if the non-murderer is also aware of the endgame explosion.

How can he cover the murderer without even knowing what he's trying to cover? that doesn't seem an intelligent plan to me. I mean let's say I create a fake murder scene where someone is stabbed, but the murderer actually plans to poison everyone, that wouldn't make much sense. In fact in the scenario where the murderer is planning the great explosion massacre this person who tries to cover him would be just wasting everyone's time... for nothing.

this kind of thing would only make sense in case the murder already happened and the one who tries to cover it acts accordingly.

Having finished my reread-with-notes up to Ep3, I think it's about time to present some select observations and puzzling questions discovered, so here they are, sorted in no particular order, but split by episodes and taking out things I brought up already. I hope at least a few of them are actually genuinely new.

Hidden into spoiler tags because it's bloody long and scrolls off, not that I expect most people to pay much attention.

Spoiler for Episode 1:

If Maria is connected to Beatrice, why does the shrine disappearance worry her? Why does she proceed straight to the hysterics?

George tells Maria to name the rose. Up until this moment she does everything George tells her to, but there is no reference to the rose being named ever again. He does not suggest anything of the sort in further episodes. As a side note, naming the rose 'Erika' and carrying it around could provide a perfect vessel for an Erika Ball.

When Battler tries to fondle Shannon, he does not expect to succeed. Shannon does not resist, which in some interpretations of Shannon makes sense. But no interpretation of George makes sense for what George is doing. There are two normal reactions -- public open: "hands off, mine" and private closed: "quit your inappropriate behaviour". If I were Shannon, I would expect and require a public open one but would make do with the private closed at the time. Neither happens.

The portrait has been put up in April 1984, but it is never mentioned whom did the artist have as a model, if anyone, or if he had to make do with photos. A portrait of this kind has to have some sort of source.

Kanon reports on the details of the sibling deal to the dead Kinzo. Even knowing that Kinzo is actually dead, how was Kanon meant to know these details when he could not have been present on this private conversation? Is there some legit way to listen in on the discussion in the parlor for anyone?

Hideyoshi is the first and ony one to express he wants to see the First Beatrice Letter himself, and even tries to take it away. The first thing he checks is the wax seal. He then apologizes, just in case we didn't notice the first two times.

Graduates of Fukuin House are said to be not just orphans, but "people disowned by their parents". That's a significant distinction which most people seem to be forgetting. Also note the 'graduates' of Fukuin House. I don't think any kind of orphanage graduates people at 6! Jessica later says "Everyone Grandfather selected [from Fukuin] was young, about the same age as Shannon and Kanon." That, however, is impossible as stated, because Kanon and Shannon would have to have been selected at radically different ages, and since a 6-year old kid is not much use around the household, there's a good chance Shannon is actually not from Fukuin at all.

The kitchen has gas ovens... and no ventilation. What?!

Eva immediately suggests looking for the missing people inside the study. She sounds pretty sure Kinzo is in fact dead and essentially calls Natsuhi on it. Did anything happen to convince her during the night?

Kanon returns from his search right before Natsuhi leaves to make tea. Only when Natsuhi has left, even though he has to have met her practically in the door, Kanon mentions the storehouse and actually tells Eva and Hideyoshi first, while the proper procedure would be to gently brush them off and tell Natsuhi or Genji.

Upon seeing the pantacle on the shutter, both Eva and Genji immediately agree to destroy the pentacle without letting anyone see it. But instead of seeing what the paint is first and whether it's by any chance water soluble, Genji immediately offers to paint over it.

While Jessica was present when Kanon reported the storehouse, it doesn't look like she was paying attention, but here she goes running straight there. In speech, Jessica says she is "Pretty sure there's a storehouse for gardening tools or something" but does not explain why she's running there.

Did nobody honestly check the dining hall when searching for the missing people? Was it locked? Because the parlor is normally not locked like the Ep3 says.

Just why is Hideyoshi excited about a color TV in the new year's lottery if he plans a vacation in Maldives at the same time? Color television was introduced in Japan in 1960 so they're nothing at all new. Surely he could afford one anyway, so what would be so fun about playing the lottery?

Two entrances into the mansion aboveground lead to the courtyard, both non locking, and one from the underground boiler room. Otherwise, leaving the boiler room and ending up in the courtyard, there would be no way Battler would be confused which door to take. It is never mentioned where each of the two entrances go. The text does not actually say if the courtyard boiler room door has a lock or not, though, just that the aboveground courtyard doors do not.

The study actually has a kitchenette. Do you believe Kinzo was cooking himself? Me neither. Who's it for then? There's a chessboard with an unfinished game on it and we're meant to think that Nanjo played with Kinzo yesterday. But with Kinzo dead for a year, why is the chessboard set up at all? Was it like this for a year? It'd be buried in dust, which would be instantly obvious.

When the bodies in the parlor are discovered next to singing Maria, Maria says that Genji made sure to lock the parlor door. But since Genji just handed the keys over to Natsuhi, he couldn't do that. Kumasawa didn't hand them over and could, but then either Kumasawa gave her set to Genji, who just theatrically gave his over only to get another set, which is very different from Genji's characterisation, or Maria is actually lying... which is very different from her characterisation.

Natsuhi says that Beatrice 'claims to succeed the head of Ushiromiya family', which is not often brought up again, and has to have been mentioned in the unseen last letter. Immediately after the witch 'raises her golden staff overhead and laughs'. And yes, that is exactly what the Japanese text says. The staff has to be a metaphor for the gun. Only, Dress-Beatrice is never shown wielding a staff, while Suit-Beatrice is always with one.

Bernkastel immediately hints that Beatrice may not be 'one individual woman'. This has been around since Ep1.

Spoiler for Episode 2:

Strangely, both Eva and George are not quite right about Earl Grey tea brand, as while Eva thinks it's a place, and George knows he's a person, neither seems to be aware what an Earl is.

When talking to Shannon, Jessica curiously 'pretends to faint in agony' multiple times. But when Jessica goes on stage, even though Jessica is dressed up as the anachronistic Marisa, Kanon recognises her even before her stage clothes are mentioned. Her voice does not change. This doesn't seem to be a disguise hint as such.

When Piece-Battler uncharacteristically speaks like he's aware that he's on the defensive and is waiting for the witch's move, immediately afterwards, Jessica looks out into the rose garden in an inner monologue referencing 'memories she didn't want to remember', and wondering whom Battler believes to be the main character currently on stage. The backround for this sub-scene is, strangely, the window in Beatrice Room.

Kyrie paradoxically behaves like she's running the Anti-Krauss plot and at the same time, is not aware of Rudolf's financial troubles, which would be the motivation for her to start the plot. Then, during the discussion with the siblings, Kyrie looks out of the same Beatrice Room window.

Rosa always tells Maria to keep her promises. Rosa actually makes promises with Maria but frequently breaks them. But Maria is the only character who makes a point to say she keeps promises besides Beatrice.

I wonder, how do the serving carts with food get over all the way to the second and third floor? Is there a dumbwaiter somewhere? Because you can't actually carry the cart up the stairs -- certainly Shannon or Kanon would have huge problems.

Nanjo claims that absolutely everyone has been engaged in minor Beatrice-affirming pranks for the sake of Maria. George sorta-admits. Interestingly, everyone seems to completely ignore that Maria is in the same room and nearby when talking about her, and this actually persists through all episodes.

When examining the Beatrice Room, Suit-Beatrice is not found after moderate search, but the bed is clearly described as having been used. If that is true, could anyone have actually slept in it? Moments later, Kanon finds a note, but does not read it aloud - Jessica does, crumples it and discards it and we never see it again. While the note is added to the tips, there is no reliable detective confirmation it even existed.

Jessica's wound 'reaches as far as her lungs' but such a wound is not necessarily nor obviously fatal, as the lungs aren't actually all that deep.

George notes that 'MARIA' may reference Virgin Mary and expands on that, but to Battler's question 'did you hear this from Maria', he answers just 'Something like that.' George clearly has an independent source of occult knowledge.

Rosa tries to call the study but stops herself (!) remembering that phones are broken. This sort of thing actually happens often, as having been told the phones aren't working, nobody thinks to actually pick one up and check for the dialtone to see if the internal PBX is alive. Generally someone speaks out about this, but in this case Rosa actually reaches out and only stops then. A scene or two later, George tries to call Jessica and is actually stopped by Gohda before he can get a dialtone.

Rosa finds a key with a mascot keychain on the side table in Jessica Room. Rosa confirms it is Jessica's key by leaving, closing the door, locking, unlocking, opening, entering. There's no way to tell which one did she insert when doing so, as she was unobserved at this moment, so it could be any key -- and also, it would still open and lock the door if it were Kanon's master key. Later, Nanjo recovers something from Jessica's pocket, and Genji claims it is a master key. Nobody tests it. Beatrice refuses to repeat 'The last time it was locked was due to the master key' and derails the conversation when Battler asks her why.

Shannon says Jessica wasn't in the habit of locking her room and would only do that when leaving for school so that Krauss doesn't look inside. Why Krauss, who apparently doesn't actually care that much, but not Natsuhi, who probably does? Why can't Krauss do that while she's out of the room for an extended period for some other reason? Regardless, the previous Jessica Room scene clearly states the door was indeed locked, so what Shannon says raises a suspect flag. Speaking of suspects, why is Nanjo speaking out to support Rosa? Why is Shannon surprised he is?

Rosa makes an interesting argument that she could kill George and Battler right now and blame Beatrice. However, that would only work if forensic ballistics is not an argument or if Rosa can switch her gun later, and Rosa cannot possibly be unaware of that.

The only characters to use ahaha.wav are the witches, and Eva, but here, Rosa goes and does it. Then, she goes on to offer to Shannon, "Tomorrow morning, ...let's make up, drinking some delicious coffee." I doubt any other first generation Ushiromiya can even imagine fraternising with the servants in such a manner, and Rosa obviously knows Shannon closer than we are otherwise supposed to think. A bit later, Battler just cries rather abstractly and George suddenly replies, "I know better than anyone how pure your heart is, Battler-kun. ...No one will blame you. No one." Blame for what, specifically? Just for staying with Rosa? Really? Or does George know something we don't? Once everyone's out of sight Rosa instantly goes twoface and uses the word 'furniture'. I don't think any other Ushiromiya used that word ever as a pejorative.

When comparing magic to gambling, it is stated that risking big offers a chance to win big. But in a gamble, risking big gives a chance to win big because payoff rules are dependent on the stake size. What exactly could a murderer possibly win, assuming the murderer owns the gold, if he risks having the gold found?

When leaving the parlor to observe the corpses of Nanjo and Kumasawa, before leaving, Rosa rechecks the locks on windows. If Battler was napping, and Rosa wasn't, why would she do it a second time?

Natsuhi Room, with the dead George, Shannon and Gohda in it, instead of a pantacle, has handprints on it, which makes pretty much no sense whatsoever this time. Maria is awfully certain that she can prevent Battler from being killed by the witch for fun. Or even selected by the roulette, apparently.

Spoiler for Episode 3:

Little-Beatrice refers to a Grandfather. There is actually only one Beatrice-candidate that would refer to Kinzo as a grandfather, and that would be Jessica. Much later, Beatrice, identifying herself with Little-Beatrice once again, (a third time) says, "The smashed vase wouldn't return back to its original form... A lost life will not return to normal no matter what happens. I was frightened that even though my careless actions had been thoughtless, ...they had stolen a life that would never be revived again. Then, I pitied the lost life, and cried. I was frightened of myself, who had made it become lost, and cried even more. I'm sure that Grandfather also cried at the loss of his precious vase. I'm sure that all of the people who valued Grandfather and saw him like that cried.". Would you cry over seeing an old man crying? I don't think so, but crying over seeing an old man die readily happens. This could well be interpreted as Jessica killing Kinzo by an accident, and being a Beatrice. In the same vase scene, the servants say that a 'black cat' sneaked up from somewhere and broke the vase. But if it's Rokkenjima, it's very unlikely to have cats at all, so the servants may be shifting the blame as well.

Eva was sleeping on the boat and thinking that solving the epitaph will give her headship quite seriously long before the Beatrice Letter appeared.

Shannon remembers Battler saying as he left, "I'll be back, <see you again>. I'll come to greet you riding on a white horse." Kyrie later refers to the white horse regarding Rudolf, and Ange uses the same English phrases. Since Battler's contact with either in the past six years has to have been rather sparse, it is much more likely that this is actually a Rudolfism that Battler picked up early and eventually got rid of.

Maria: "A witch that I know said it. Happiness, if everyone doesn't believe in it, won't be granted." That is, apparently, the only time Maria mentions a specific witch without actually saying it is Beatrice.

In the narrative, the scene with Kinzo throwing the ring out (and Ronove picking it up and bringing it to Beatrice) is actually presented well after the scene where Maria receives the sealed First Letter, and Beatrice is shown to still be standing in the rose garden when she actually receives the ring.

Hideyoshi seems to always be the first supporter of the "I wouldn't put it past Kinzo!" line. In fact, most times when it comes up he is the one suggesting it, as if he was on the receiving end of most of Kinzo's pranks. In this episode, Hideyoshi does this twice.

According to Meta-Beatrice, a disemodied soul is damaged by 'strong winds of the sun'. If discarding the cage of flesh was any sort of suicide, it had to be abrupt to succeed. According to Beatrice, Kinzo immediately restored the shrine with the mirror to prevent her from running away while Kinzo was making the body and binding the soul to it. Yes, the shrine is important. Also, Beatrice clearly states that the contract with Kinzo terminates when he dies. Which means it should have terminated last year.

Ronove remarks, "That is why furniture is so frightening. Sometimes they even become witches, and treat demons as butlers." but soon afterwards, Beatrice says to Shannon, "Like I said, you're furniture, you don't even smell like a humaaaaaan!! Look at me, I am a human!" and follows with a battery of Kinzoisms.

When the bodies of the first twilight victims are discovered, paradoxically, everyone first mentions that the rooms are locked and only mentions the pantacles on the doors later when seeing one again.

It is never clear throughout this episode who has been holding the entire array of master keys.

Kinzo wanted a very different name for Maria, bur Rosa made it into Maria on her own. I suspect this means a single kanji or a few strokes difference that makes another name which is probably quite meaningful. Unfortunately that requires someone far more versed in Japanese than I am to confirm.

Just why does Battler seem to think that George would keep living with his parents? Surely, George has his own money, is an adult legally, is in opposition to Eva who would not take his marriage to Shannon lightly. Battler is aware of all that as he speaks. Is there any special reason he thinks that Battler would strike out on his own and George would not?

__________________

"The only principle that does not inhibit progress is: anything goes."
— Paul K. Feyerabend, "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge"

An interesting thought exercise: Reread ep1-3 (4 is kind of anomalous in this respect) with the idea that everyone else suspects Battler is the killer. Rosa and Eva do seem to be wary of him in 2 and 3...

I mean, of course, we know he isn't. But maybe that's clouding our observations. The mere fact we know he's not the killer doesn't mean the characters know that.